Aggressor 2 About the boat

The boat is a 100 foot long yacht. The room I was in was small with its own in-suite bathroom. Storage is two drawers under the bunk a single shelf over one bunk, and a small closet to hang stuff up. There are also two hooks to hang things like wet towels or swim suits. I found the bed to be comfortable. Meaning it was a little soft. The room temps were comfortable to sleep with a sheet and a light blanket. The bed was made each day and clean towels were provided. Most days there was a chocolate placed on the bed. My cabin didn't have a lot of engine noise, but I was also very tired at the end of each day so sleeping was not an issue. Most of the long runs were done at night. I found to crew the be attentive and friendly. Two snack bowls were placed in the salon. Assorted chocolates, chips, and cookies were in one bowl with mostly apples and pears in the other. They were refilled at the start of the day only. There was unlimited Club beer (first beer = no more diving that day) and Coke. The bottles are returnable. There was also plenty of water. No one drank to excess. There is a DVD player in the salon and also in the rooms. Tom

North Seymour Island Galapagos

I scarfed down lunch so we would make the land tour on time. I'm sitting on the side of the panga, we motor up to the steps and on the steps is a momma sea lion and her pup. He's feeding and they both barely acknowledge our intrusion.

The island is a major nesting spot for Blue Footed Boobies and Frigate birds. We walk a well marked and designated path and see LOTS of wildlife. None of them particularly care about us.

It has been a difficult year. Many nests had two eggs but only one hatched.

Also saw plenty of abandoned nests.

The boobie is a ground nesting bird. The nest is in the middle of a rather wide ring of white bird poo. Male lava lizard. These are all volcanic islands.

There are several species of these lizards.

These really were right next to the path.

The marine iguanas are just cool. And, like the sea lions, all over the place.

The land iguanas had some real size to them too. This was a big male.

After the tour we had a little bit to be social. On the boat there were only 5 Americans. The rest of the customers were from Japan, Austria, Denmark, England, Canada, Spain, and Germany.

I even got birthday cake. Mexican Chocolate.

Dinner was hummus and pita bread appetizer, Cabernet or Zinfandel wine, Grilled shrimp and a peas bacon and rice dish.

Due to cloudy weather, I only caught one sun set.

Next up. Wolf Island diving.

Tom

Galapagos Baltra & Lunch on Aggressor II

July 23... Happy birthday to me. I'm 40 Baltra airport. My first open air airport. No walls to speak of on this building.

Getting through the airport wasn't hard or too time consuming. The first major cash only expense is the visitors card. $100.

I am so much happier now that I am FINALLY here. And I really will catch the boat. I was picked up by Solon. He's one of the dive masters on the boat. He helped me with my gear, got me into the panga and ferried me to my new digs for the next almost week. Just above the water line are the port holes for the cabins. Above that is the salon, above that are the other 4 rooms and bridge, and finally on top is the sun deck. I made it on time to get lunch. I had a light penne soup to start, followed by a plate with chicken and fresh baked grouper. I am looking forward to eating well on this trip. Next, N.Seymour Island land tour.

Guayaquil

I'm finally at the airport waiting on my ride to the hotel.

This is the Rio Guaya. Note the lack of lane markers on the road. I am once again in a city that has no lane markers on the road. You drive where ever it will fit in the traffic. Accidents are prevented with liberal applications of the horn. If you can get your nose in a gap it's yours.

On account of being by myself I really didn't wander outside my hotel room. Call me chicken.

You can't go out... so you can only go up...

I got a flight to Santa Cruz island an Baltra airport in the morning. Maybe I really will make it.

Side note: Hot water is still on the left and cold is still on the right even though the faucets are marked C (caliente) on the left and F (frio) on the right.

That one took me a minute to figure out.

Galapagos... first SNAFU. Miami to Guayaquil

July 22

I don't think I will ever look back on the last 24 hours and laugh. I won't cry either which did cross my mind a couple times. Vanessa, my girlfriend, is wonderful. She really did help keep me sane by talking to me on the phone.

It's easy to wonder how I could be on a plane from Dallas to Miami. The same plane that I am supposed to be on from Miami to Guayaquil. Some thing breaks, or goes wrong, or what ever and the flight gets postponed fro what ends up being 14 hours. If they (American Airlines) had made the original 6am reschedule time (be at the airport by 4:30a), I might have made my connection in Guayaquil with some help through customs. I ended up getting maybe two hours of sleep. But they are missing a first officer. Then someone doesn't show up, so they must remove those bags.

The flight down was bumpy. I did get to see a big cumulonimbus cloud over Cuba. The isthmus of Panama looks cool from the air too.

Customs was two hours.

I like the hotel I am in. Hotel Grand Guayaquil. It has the smallest elevator I have ever been in. Three people if they are skinny and REAL friendly.

This is the all important pool and courtyard. I thought they were friendly. The food was decent. The welcome cocktail was a rum drink. Breakfast buffet included.

Free 30 min of internet per day. I had to learn the keyboard short cut for the @ sign. I ended up using it alot.

More about Guayaquil next.

Galapagos July 21... Flight from DFW to Miami

Bear with me. I really an somewhat a novice traveler. To someone who is well experienced at this my lessons were probably learned long ago. I checked into my flight, checked the terminal and gate online about 5 hours pre-flight. I arrived at the ticket counter to check bags and discover it's been moved to another terminal. At least I had plenty of time to change terminals. (Note to self.. Sign up for text message updates that American offers). I wore my sandals to make getting through security easier. It was lagely a full 767. I had an exit row window seat. More leg room I got a Nook for this trip and loved it. My first mistake was to leave it on standby instead of off last time I updated it. The battery is almost dead. At least I grabbed the charger "just in case". Nice easy flight.

Galapagos trip Intro

I hope people start here to help understand how this is organized. Every day I journaled the trip. I put quite a bit of detail into it. I'm going to enter each day separately and tag each page separately. The tags will change naturally. I hope people enjoy reading about this trip as much as I enjoyed taking it. For the record... I can spell. I don't always catch my typos. Tom